Ripped at the Seams; A Final Fantasy Story
by Vivi Orunitia
Summary: This is a very involved FF crossover fic that involves plot characters of my creation. I suspect it will end up reading something like a novel. If you arn't interested in reading something new and untraditional, I suggest that you don't read this story. O


Ripped at the Seams;

**Ripped at the Seams;**

**A Final Fantasy Story**

_By:_

_Vivi Orunitia_

THE V.O. SUPER DUPER PATENTED DISCLAMER THING! :

Umm… I'm poor. I don't own anything. Anybody who tries to sue me is a loser.

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Thank you for taking a look into my first fanfic. I hope you enjoy it. It is not finished, and will probably have several more parts before the conclusion, if it is liked. Please take the time to review and give constructive feedback.

If you are not interested in reading something slightly new that involves new characters, don't bother to read any further.

This story will probably read much like a short novel. Give it a little time to get into. ;-)

I hope you enjoy it…

_V.O._

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Darkness consumed the rocky cavern. The only light came from the pinpoint of a moon… so very far away. Reflected off the puddles of grimy water, the moonlight gave the cavern an eerie, bluish glow.

A young girl stood, her long black hair blowing in an unseen wind, her tear streamed face frozen in a silent pose. She stared at the depths of the cavern, into some unknown place in her heart.

With a sob, the girl raised her left hand in front of her face. The tears flowed like small rivers now. Sparks appeared around the girl's hand, green needles of light bounding as the ball of energy grew.

"I'm sorry, Cyril…" came the whisper from the girl.

The blinding light grew, lighting up the cave from within as the Ultima spell took hold. The resounding explosion shook the night like an earthquake. The cavern ripped apart, sending shards of earth, stone and ash flying into the night. 

"So sorry…".

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25 YEARS LATER

"Damn it, Linus! Stop it!" screamed the voice from the hole. Brown sand and rust colored earth spewed from the large pit in the ground as a dirty face peeked up over the edge.

"Stop friggin' playing around! We have work to do!", spat the face, as it's owner climbed out of the hole. It wasn't a bad looking face either. It belonged to Amy Rill, college student extraordinaire. Or, soon to be extraordinaire anyway. That was why she was out here, trying to fulfill her dream of becoming someone. Hah. Off rooting through the wilderness, looking for her professor's lost 'marbles'… Lord help him. So, digging a hole in the desert floor may not SEEM like an aspiring start for a paleontologist… but everybody has to start somewhere…If it wasn't for her STUPID professor and all his STUPID obsessions… she would probably have government funding, on some trip of her own. Off rooting through pyramids or something.

Amy was brought sharply back to her senses when a clod of mud smacked her in the side of the head. The thrower, her younger brother Linus, danced around like an idiot, giggling like a little school girl the whole time.

"You little brat! C'mere!". Dropping her 'mature' mentality, Amy took off across the dig site after the blond headed teen, losing her shoes and half of her dignity on the way.

Linus took the path straight through the middle of the dig camp, the one surrounded by all of the temporary white cloth tents that the students and professors used on their outings.

'Looks like a whole bunch of junk thrown together by some homeless desert people.', thought Amy. 'God, I hate this… chasing my stupid younger brother through what's basically my college classroom…If only I didn't have to baby-sit him all the time…'

"AGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!" Amy looked up from her sprint just in time to see Linus fall over a foot sticking out from a nearby tent flap… flat on his face. He raised his head and spit out a mouthful of sand. 

"Damn it, Nigel! I could have gotten away!" yelled the scraggly boy angrily.

The owner of the foot stepped outside of the tent, yawning and grinning sheepishly.

"Uh.. sorry. Thought you were somebody else." laughedNigel.Nigel and Amy were very good friends, and had decided to do the whole paleontology thing together. Nigel was the closest thing to what you could call Linus's friend at the dig site. Though it was kind of hard to tell, the way they beat up on each other all the time. 

"Thanks for catching him for me…" said Amy, giving Linus a hard slap on the back of the head. 

"OW! HEY!" he whined.

Nigel placed a hand over Linus's mouth, yawned again, and gave Amy another grin. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be checking out that new area over on the edge of the camp?"

"Yeah, I was… until this little crackhead thought it would be funny to screw me up. It's not like I would have found anything anyway…".

"Ah, well. I'll beat him up for you later. Right now I'm kind of hungry, you want some grub?"

Amy smiled. "Sure thing... but we have class right now, remember?"

Nigel frowned. "Oh, right. Great fun. Alright, let's go."

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"Hello there kiddies! Welcome to your third week of hell!" The University's Director of Archaeology, Professor Wuldeen, waddled around in front of about 30 college students in a large, mess-hall like tent. The fat, lethargic looking man was not the 'plump pleasant' type, but more of the fat, hairy, smelly type. However, he was the most learned Archaeologist on the continent (which didn't make putting up with his ceaseless crap any easier). He was currently trying to scare a whole bunch of the freshmen into submission with another scary speech. Amy ignored him.

She doodled on her paper while she thought of her life. 'Archaeology… Maybe if Dad hadn't died, he'd have the Professor's job by now…'. Amy's mother and father had died in a terrorist bombing three years ago. They were en route to an archaeological expedition on the Philidean continent, and had gotten off their helicoptor at the airport while it refueled. According to the death report, they were in the gift shop. Probably picking out something cute and ditzy to bring back to her and Linus. Poor Linus…

Linus was only twelve when they died. He hadn't taken it nearly as well as Amy, and he didn't like to speak of his parents. Amy's father always seemed to come up in conversation with Professor Wuldeen though… which always lead to confrontations. Linus always won. He would end up cussing out the Professor and calling him a fat moron and such… while the Professor would stalk off to his tent, fuming. Amy smiled to herself. The Professor couldn't so much as look at Linus the wrong way. He had specific permission from the University's Dean of Historical Education, Mrs. Monson. Mrs. Monson was an expert scientist and historian, and was stunningly beautiful, and also Amy's favorite teacher. 'Good thing she took Linus under her wing… I'd hate to be without him.. even if he is annoying… I…"

"MS. RILL! It's good to see that you think my lecture is IMPORTANT!" the professor had waddled up right behind her and startled her out of her daze. "I've been going over the details for the past THIRTY MINUTES, and you haven't even written so much as ONE WORD on the topic!"

Amy glared at him through lowered eyebrows. From somewhere in the back of the room, she heard Linus's voice. "WOW! THIRTY MINUTES HUH? BUT WE DON'T NEED THE DETAILS OF YOUR NEW DIET PROFESSOR!". There was a burst of laughter.

The professor puffed up like a red balloon and glared around the room. Other than sporadic snickers, all was quiet.

"AS I WAS SAYING…" yelled the professor… "It is VERY important that we find at least one of these artifacts on our expedition.He waddled up to the front of the class room and turned on the film projector (one of the only things supplied with electricity in the camp).

An enlarged picture of three small marbles appeared on the white projection canvas. They looked like ordinary, school yard marbles, other than the fact that they were all an odd green color.Amy frowned. This was only… what… the sixteenth time this month that he had given this 'lecture'? The poor professor was obsessed with these marble things… according to the Seniors, this was the third expedition he had led out here, and the object of each one had been to find one of these marbles.

Amy raised her hand. "So what exactly do we do once we find one of these?"

The professor glowered at her. "The procedure is the same as for any other find. You turn it in to me to be cleaned and packaged immediately… the only difference is that the first person to find one will automatically have their grade brought up to a 97 for the semester, no questions asked."

The students whispered among each other. A 97 in Professor Wuldeen's class was unheard of. Hardly anyone passed it. Amy had a low 'C', but it wasn't because she was a bad student. It was because the professor was an ass…

"Well, you're dismissed! See you again after the morning work detail! Get a good night's rest so that you can work extra hard tomorrow! Oh, and Ms. Rill! You owe me three hours of your free time. You have an extra work detail that you'll be attending." He guffawed at his humor and headed out of the tent.

Amy flicked him off when he turned around.

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The hustle and bustle of the camp greatly increased during the night time. Small lanterns flickered outside every tent flap in their never-ending waltz with the desert wind, while tanned desert guides and pale, dust streaked students roamed the camp, laughing and just having fun after a hard day's work.

The only quiet place was in a small clearing near Amy's tent, on the south side of the camp. It was there that Nigel had built a fire and cooked some hot dogs and beans in a can. Nothing great, but it was better than what some people had to eat.

And, every day, like clockwork, Linus brought up the forbidden topic.

"So what do you think these marble-things are that the professor has us out here looking for?" he garbled through his hot dog.

"You mean what he has everyone BUT YOU out here looking for… you're just kind of along for the ride…" said Amy quietly.

Nigel chuckled. "Oh, c'mon Amy. He's not that bad. Besides… think about it. Wuldeen has everybody comb the same area… I mean, every class that comes out here into the desert has been restricted to this area of land… right here, to the west of the Outer Peaks." Nigel pointed to the nearby mountain range. It looked like the teeth of some rabid hound, pointing up into the night sky. Amy shuddered at the thought. She didn't like dogs…

"What if it's the Ehrgeiz?" munched Linus.

"Ho ho… that's a good one, kid!" said Nigel. The big 23-year-old gave Linus a friendly pat on the head. "You don't honestly think that a bunch of college kids and a teenager would be looking for something like that, do you?"

"Something like what?" said Amy.

Both Nigel and Linus turned and gave Amy the weirdest look. Suddenly she felt very stupid…

"HEY! IT'S NOT MY FAULT I HAVE A SOCIAL LIFE!! IT'S NOT LIKE I CAN SPEND ALL MY TIME STUDYING! YOU PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE RESPECT FOR OTHER PEOPLE'S FEELINGS! OH MY GOD! HOW CAN YOU BE SO HEARTLESSS! I NEVER…"

"Sheesh…" moaned Linus, his hot dog forgotten in the verbal onslaught. Nigel rubbed his ears. Even the Outer Peaks seemed to retreat into the desert, cowering away from the roaring girl.

"Grr…" she growled. "OK… so what is it?"

Linus sighed and bit into his hot dog again. "The legendary weapon! I can't believe you haven't heard of it!"

"Grr…"

Nigel interrupted quickly. "The Ehrgeiz is supposed to be some sort of ultimate weapon. The power to destroy nations, armies… that sort of thing. It was supposedly destroyed during the Gothic Age, but… most people agree that if it was actually that powerful… it would have been very hard to wipe out completely. Besides. Most people believe the Ehrgeiz to be a sword, not a marble-like object."

"I doubt these dumb round things that the professor has us looking for have anything to do with the Ehrgeiz. What do you think is the point of having us search through three miles of desert for Dr. Fat Man's stupid lost marbles?" Amy snapped.

Nigel gave Amy his withering look again. "You really don't come to class that often, do you? He told us that these 'marble-things' were valuable artifacts. Shiny, small, round bundles of money, basically. But why would something like that be worth so much? There has to be more to it than he's letting on."

Amy pondered the possibilities for a moment. "So… what do we do if we actually find one of these things?"

Nigel coughed. "I doubt that we will, considering the other class's results. But, if one of us happens to run into one… HOLD ON TO IT! I don't think we should let the good doctor know about it right away. Maybe we can sneak it into the school's tech lab and let Mrs. Monson do some analysis."

Linus perked up. "Good idea! Maybe there's some kind of conspiracy of something going on.. you know.. one that Dr. Fat Man has been hiding from us?"

Amy glowered at her brother. "Stop being dumb. That brainless sweat bag couldn't blow his nose if brains were dynamite."

Nigel looked up from his tin of beans. "But he could blow our chances at a career."

Everyone was silent for a moment.

"Maybe we should do our best to make him happy." Said Amy.

"Maybe…" echoed Nigel.

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That night, when everyone was done with their food, Amy gave Linus a hug and Nigel a peck on the cheek and retired to her tent on the edge of camp. She never had liked it that much, being so far away from both of them, but it was better than being in one of the guide tents. The guides stayed in tents further out, just in case a random sandstorm came in the middle of the night, so they could come in further and warn everyone before hand.

Amy changed into her pajamas and lay in her sleeping bag, staring at the swaying dance of the lantern outside her tent, listening to the windsong of the desert play with the camp.And she began to think.

'Why did I do this? Didn't I know I would never have a chance to do something that I wanted? Mom always said you should go for your dreams… before she left anyway. Dad always said you should take the clearest path available. The one that you know will give you what you want. But it's never that easy. At least not anymore. Out here looking for over-sized marbles. Over-sized kid's toys. It's hopeless. Her mother would be proud. Her father, pissed. But isn't that the way it always is?….."

Amy nodded off to sleep, her head filled with dreams of floating marble earrings and big, shiny swords, and a huge, fat, angry Professor screaming obscenities at the top of his lungs.

So fast asleep was she, that she never noticed the shadowy form that slid past her tent flap. Never noticed the four legs climb up and stand above her head. Never noticed the canine snout sniffing her hair, or the cold blue eyes roaming her face. Never noticed it's hot breath on her cheek…

Never noticed the gleaming, red ball that it dropped into her pillowcase… the one that glowed with an inner fire all it's own…

As quietly as it entered, it was gone…

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End file.
